Part 7 (1/2)

This was the first hint that Yakoob Beg had fallen by the hands of discontented partisans In itself so natural, it threw fresh light on the strange deed he was reported to have done of disinheriting his own family, and it speedily became the accepted version The question then as Hakim Khan Torah? Two versions were put forward; one was that he was the son of Buzurg Khan, the other that he was a Khoja chief of Kucha The former was the las Forsyth's exhaustive report, it is open to some objection, more particularly e are told that he bore a principal part in the conquest of Kashgar by Yakoob Beg The latter suggestion was much more difficult to prove, but was not open to the same objection

Grant that Hakim, or Aali, Khan Torah was a pardoned Kucha chief when that city fell into the hands of the Athalik Ghazi, and there was nothing extraordinary in his having proved a traitor assuovernorshi+p of that city, of which the _Turkestan Gazette_ asserts he had been Dadkwah, and there is nothing inconsistent in his having sought to realize his own ambitious schemes the moment fortune frowned upon his conqueror That Hakie his father's deposition and life of exile is not in itself strange we ad as an adventurer froainst and arian prince at once appears not only possible, but the true story

As a leading Khoja of Kucha he would also have claiar In the face, too, of a great and pressing danger fro Khan would scarcelythe _de facto_ sovereign; whereas a Kucha leader ht aspire to play in such a crisis the same part that Amursana did in the last century It was said that Hakiave hieinal state had died of fever on the 1st of May, after an illness of seven days' duration, and that on the 13th of May the body was brought in state fro deposited in theto the _Turkestan Gazette_, there ensued one of those atrocious deeds which have so often marked the history of Central Asian states The second son of the dead A his last e, and was met at a short distance fro The elder son at once knelt before his father's coffin, and then rising, without a moment's delay fired a pistol at his brother, who dropped down dead Not content with this fratricide, Kuli Beg had the whole of the escort put to the sword, and returned to Kashgar with his own followers escorting the coffin We know nothing whatever of the reasons for this atrocious act, but the fact of Kuli Beg being in Kashgar, and not in the east, sho Hakim Khan was able to establish his authority in Kucha and Korla It will be more convenient to consider in another chapter the further course of these internal troubles, and also the final triumph of the Chinese

There are, therefore, two versions of how Yakoob Beg met his death, and in support of each view there is a certain amount of evidence All the infor The Chinese reports in the _Pekin Gazette_ ignore the subject altogether

Their personal hatred was directed an leader who had fled froainst the Athalik Ghazi Of thedied at Korla in May, 1877, there is no doubt, and that the most eventful career that has enerations was then brought to a close

Whatever opinion may be formed of the man from his varied fortunes, there will be feill deny that he possessed great mental qualities; so Buzurg Khan, and with more justice may his earlier life be blamed for his repeated desertion of his friend and patron Khudayar

Others will call toconduct in 1875, and deny that he possessed that decision of character which is the salient feature in all truly great hted policy he pursued of extending his empire up to the vicinity of China, were also calculated to lower his claieneral or a statesman In extenuation of these acts, which decidedly undermined the fabric of his rule, it 's character that has never received sufficient attention It is as the secret to his foreign policy

He certainly did not aspire, as ht, to contest unaided the palm of superiority with Russia in Central Asia He was far too well informed to dream of that Nor could he expect to be able to extend his power to the south, where both Afghanistan and Cashmere would resent his presence The only option left to hi himself at the expense of China We know not what dreams may have entered the ar of uniting in one crusade against China all the followers of the Prophet in Central Asia and of e the deeds of some of his predecessors who had carried fire and sword into the border provinces of China, and whoht i from tales told of the decadence of China, we know not howh fifteen degrees of longitude, through Aksu to Kucha, Kucha to Korla, Korla to Karashar, and Karashar to Turfan, until frohtam he could almost see the rich cities of Hamil and Barkul, cities which are the key to Western China and Northern Tibet, and irasp But the policy of Yakoob Beg will not be clearly appreciated, unless we bear in s were held in check by fear of Russia, and by the hostility of the Tungani, who continued to plot even when subdued His keen spirit reatly under the inability to accomplish that which he conceived to be possible, and despite his numerous triumphs he was at heart a disappointedthese later years, when the task he had set before him had been nearly accoer young or as energetic as he had been He was entering, for an Asiatic, upon the evening of life, and had no longer the physical power to essay any protracted and desperate enterprise For a ”forlorn hope”

he was as eager and as effective as ever, but for those undertakings which require not only desperate courage but also forethought and patience he was no longer fit But the Chinese invasion dispelled all these, and many other illusions In their eyes and before their power, he was only another Sultan of Talifoo His great qualities, which attracted syland were vain in the eyes of a people whose ”eue, ”been planted by heaven” Before Chinese viceroys and Mantchoo chivalry Khokandian soldiers and Mussulht the Chinese, if they thought upon the subject at all And so 's overthrow Yakoob Beg's rule in Kashgar was for twelve years a visible fact; it was recognized by England and by Russia The Central Asian Khans gladly acknowledged the ad ranks Even Shere Ali, an ostensibly powerful ruler, honoured Yakoob Beg not so much with his friendshi+p as with his jealousy Yet it was all fleeting fast away

In co; in comparison with Chinese perseverance his eakness; in comparison with Chinese tactics, his tactics were those of a school-boy; and even in coe had to confess an equal There was not only the dead weight of nuht of superior intellect There were superior strategy and superior weapons; greater force and greater determination; no hesitation in action, and perfect unanimity in council; all co with all the desperation of despair for life, if not for liberty Worthier of a better fate, anddestiny with the cal's defeat and death may serve to ”point a es with as close a regard for fact as the e whose name is the pivot round which the main facts concentrate, it lishenerationthe only real break in the Chinese domination in Eastern Turkestan When the massacres and other atrocities that an outbreak on both sides shall have been forgotten or condoned, then it will be adreat benefits conferred by China on the people in the way of trade-fostering and good government, there was some merit in the administration which a Khokandian soldier had unaided created in this region High credit, then, let us, who view the subject from an impartial stand-point, pay this departed warrior, who as a soldiercareer Much as we th, let us not judge Yakoob Beg harshly, because Chinaht It is an easy gauge to apply, and one which would dispel all the reputation the Athalik Ghazi had secured, if we deny the Chinese the great qualities those who know the so shallow a test to the case before us, we should be wronging our own understanding quite as oing out to encounter an eneht to have awaited either at Kucha or Aksu, his valour, and also his mistaken contempt for the Chinese, are made all the more clear We may fairly claim for him that he was the most remarkable man Central Asia in its fullest extent has produced since Nadir Shah; and that he acconificant h born in the purple and ruling a prosperous and thickly populated state, ht have failed to do What better epitaph could be placed over a courageous and just ruler?

The nificance

Those independent rulers who establish themselves for a space on the confines of China are e who must betake themselves away, if they can, when their little hour has struck English governments have never understood the vitality of Chinese institutions They should appreciate it better in the future

CHAPTER XIII

THE CHINESE RECONQUEST OF KASHGAR

When Yakoob Beg died at Korla the task of reconquering Kashgar had barely co in idleness round that city, exhausted, as soreatness of the effort It was not clear even that the Chinese aspired to achieve any greater triumph than that they had already won, viz, the subjection of the Tungani, a subjection which could not be considered accohbourhood at the head of a large ararian arht call a halt of an indefinite duration Nor did it follow as a matter of necessity that because the Chinese had taken Turfan they could capture Kashgar or Yarkand Distance alone was no slight obstacle, and when added to the barrenness of the country, which would bearht have hesitated to predict any very speedy triumph for the Chinese But besides these, there were other inizance

To seize Karashar or Korla only needed a bold attack; but to subject Kuchathan was even the siege of Manas A delay of two months in the heart of Eastern Turkestan must have strained the resources of the Chinese very ht have ruined their whole enterprise And even if Kucha fell there still remained Aksu, and afterwards Ush Turfan in the north, and Maralbashi+ in the south, barring the way to the vital portion of the state round Kashgar and Yarkand Now the death of Yakoob Beg did not remove any one of these defences, and for a time it was believed that his son, who had always the repute of being a good soldier, wouldline of defence that he undoubtedly possessed As awas an irretrievable disaster, for it destroyed whatever cohesion and unity there were in the country He hiht have been unable to avert a final overthrow, but the contest would have been made more protracted Therefore in the months of May and June, 1877, immediately after the death of the Athalik Ghazi, it is strictly true to say that the Chinese reconquest of the country had barely coenerals after the victory of Turfan was at first caused by a belief in the foronist died, by a prudent resolve to per causes that speedily aria to have full time to work in their favour Meanwhile they fore stores of supplies from Russian territory, and explored the little-known passes of Tekes and Yuldus A large number of fresh troops was received fro the worst period of the Tungan revolt had preserved that city for the Chinese

But before following the forwardof the internal disturbances in Eastern Turkestan,Bacha and Hakim Khan for supremacy In the first place, it is necessary that it should be distinctly understood that of the events that occurred in Kashgaria between the death of the Athalik Ghazi and the final advance of the Chinese arence at all, and it is not probable that we shall ever be accurately infor those five months In the absence of exact _data_, we must assume the events to have taken place which are 's death, his eldest son, Beg Kuli Beg, was either in the city of Kashgar or somewhere on the road thither It is probable that he had been despatched to the rear, to bring up reinforcements after the defeat at Turfan, and in his absence Hacc Kuli Beg, the Ameer's second son, assumed the command of the army when his father died It is certain that he accoar, and that he wasthis time that Hakim Khan Torah appeared upon the scene It should be re travelled very slowly to this country, and that alence of events that had occurred many weeks after the death of the A at the sa's death, and of those commotions which broke out so left Korla no personal representative re that interval the occasion arose for the intriguing ele, could never be free from Hakim Khan seized that opportunity, and established his authority in Karashar, Korla, and, probably, Kucha also; and during a short tily divided into three hostile ca Bacha, lulled into a false sense of security by the inactivity of the Chinese, resolved to chastise the insolence of his rebellious governor, a task which he should have left for the Chinese A war then broke out between Beg Bacha and Hakim Khan, which exhausted the few resources that still rear The contest appears to have been of a desultory nature, and although the final result was in favour of Beg Bacha, he never appears to have recovered possession of Karashar and Korla In the neighbourhood of Aksu the battle of this war took place, and Haki nu Bacha's chief loss was the death of Mahomed Yunus, the Dadkhwah of Yarkand, his ablest and most faithful adviser Hakim then fled to Russian territory, with 1,000 _sarbazes_, ere promptly interned by order of General Kolpakovsky, and there he sought to restore his shattered fortunes by carrying on intrigues with the Russian government It is scarcely necessary to say that these canificance which, to judge fro atn east of Aksu, an event occurred of singular significance, as illustrating the condition of Kashgar under Beg Bacha The Kirghiz chief Sadic Beg, who had disappeared fro thirteen years before, seized the opportunity afforded by Beg Bacha's ereater portion of its garrison He plundered the suburbs, and only withdrehen the young Ahiz, true to their nature, at once sought the desolate regions of Kizil Yart They had, however,from the death of the Ameer and the disaffection of Hakim Khan worse confounded, and completed those elements of weakness and discord which had always proved an invaluable ally to the Chinese By thehiz depredator were beneath contempt; but with an enemy established on the soil of the country, they assumed a too clear and mischievous importance The minor seditions that manifested themselves in Sirikul and at Khoten completed the round of dissension that, combined with external force, shattered the fair show of Yakoob Beg's enorant of the details of the disturbances that were reported to have taken place round Tashkurgan or Sirikul; but it is plausible to suppose that these were caused either by inroads on the part of the Wakhis or Badakshi+s, or by so Yarkandi settlers, it is not probable that the rising, or whatever forinated with theible, and ave Yakoob Beg his treachery towards their ruler, and the instant he disappeared they hastened to take their revenge When the Kashgarian garrison ithdrawn the towns-people simply deposed their _dadkwah_, and nominated a ruler of their oho retained authority until the triumph of the Chinesesun The example of Khoten had been followed by Sanju and the vicinity; and thus the whole southern portion of the state acquiesced in the Chinese conquest, after the fall of Kashgar, without the necessity for a single Chinese soldier to be advanced south of Yarkand It seems probable that at this very moment the Chinese troops have remained content with the subarrisoned those ie with their own soldiers

When Beg Bacha returned post haste to Kashgar, to encounter the Kirghiz, we said that Sadic Beg fled to the Kizil Yart; but he did not reain at the capital in high favour with the Ahiz folloere taken into the pay of the state, and just as this alliance had been struck up, tidings canificant, a ar The Chinese arer that had for fivein suspense over the devoted heads of a Mussul-expected Khitay were drawing nigh to the capital, in irresistible strength; and the apprehensions of a cowed people made them know, too surely, that their end was at hand The dissensions a house, and the dissentient elements in every effort towards unity, had all operated in favour of the invader While the Chinese had plotted and prepared in the deliberate ar had entered into cabals and scheh ludicrous

And all the ti expended, the Chinese generals were drawing the noose le the newly erected state beyond all chance of recovery It would alari and their rulers had recovered fro reconciled to their presence east of Korla, when they experienced a second,shock, in the announce Their brief contentment passed away, and all their old terror revived in tenfold force Hope died within their bosonation of despair only nerved them to bear a fate which their own valour should have striven to avert It is time for us now to return to the Chinese army, and to follow its decisive operations

North of the Tian Shan the supreeneralissiar, and Viceroy of the province of Kansuh South of it the co Yao, the fore of Manas, the latter of the diversion against Turfan from Hamil The base of the former was Manas, of the latter Turfan Their sources of supply were Hauchak, within the Chinese frontier, and Kuldja, Semiretchinsk, and Semipalatinsk, without Their weapons and ammunition were transported across the desert from Lanchefoo, and their ranks were swollen by recruits from the Calmuck and other tribes It does not appear that the Chinese were very eager to enlarge their ar its efficiency by the distribution of Berdan rifles and Krupp's cannon; and during the heat of the summer months they remained at rest in their recently acquired possessions Nor is it probable that those epidemics broke out in their ranks which it was asserted had appeared araph was published in the _Tashkent Gazette_, which was copied by so that a species of cholera, known in Kashgar by the name of _vuoba_, had decimated the Chinese army, and that in consequence of that calamity its advance was pereration, even if there were a substratuain, ere apprised, on high authority, that the Russian government had put a stop to the despatch of provisions to the country occupied by the Chinese ar Bacha Yet there is no question that the caravans of Mr Kamensky continued to pass between Kuldja and Manas, and that the chief caterers for the Chinese army were the Russian merchants of Central Asia In the course of their intercourse the best feelings do not appear to have prevailed between the Russians and Chinese The latter, flushed with their triu to the question of Kuldja to be agreeable to the actual possessors of that province On one or two occasions these verbal disputes assuerous aspect, and from words the disputants proceeded to blows Whether this collision was overnment took no diplomatic steps to secure reparation for injury to their subjects, and continued to wink at, if they did not actually approve of, theirthe Chinese The clearest proof of this is that the e caravan was despatched there by Mr Kamensky Still there was no little bad blood between the two people, and for a long time it was doubtful whether Russia would preserve her attitude of neutrality until Kashgar had been finally subdued Beneath all this doubt, and the uncertainty of the strength and of the ultimate intentions of China, there existed a sentiment of dissatisfaction in the , as well as at the prospect of having to restore a rich and paying province

In short, beneath the Tungan and the Kashgarian questions there s no well prepared the Chinese were at every point, hoell armed, and hoell fed was the tactical unit, and how Russia, although far fro the side of China, we may pass on to those enerals possessed the ability and e necessary to make full use of the very powerful weapon which they had created, and which was capable of acco the most arduous of enterprises

The first move wasdid not break up froeneral, by naust, 1877, with the advanced guard, to occupy the outlying villages of Subashi+ and Agha Bula He does not appear to have had under hiht later, on the 7th of Septe Tsun followed after hiha Bula, kumush, and Usha Tal to Kuhwei At this place the troops were concentrated

The chief duty of these detachments was to prepare the road for the advance of the main body, to lay in at stated places stores of fuel and water, and to erect tehly was this portion of the task perforave the order for a general forward movement on the 27th of September

The infantry followed the main road, while the cavalry, under the ieneral, proceeded by by-paths in the same direction On the 2nd of October the Chinese army south of the Tian Shan was assembled at Kuhwei Its numbers were probably about fifteen thousand arian troops threatened General Tang Jen-Ho's communications, but on the appearance of the Chinese they ”turned tail and dashed away” The very next day after his arrival at Kuhwei General Kin Shun continued his forward enerals, whose names it is not necessary to , hich to perforainst Korla The co at the River Kaidu, which flows into Lake Bostang, half-way between Karashar and Korla But his advance was here checked, as Bayen Hu, the rebel leader, had flooded the country by da up the course of the river The depth of the inundation was said to be in the deepest parts over a man's head, and in the shallowest it came up to the horses' cruppers The Chinese ed to a northerly direction, in order to strike the river higher up, where the obstruction raised by the enemy would be more easily overco these alkaline plains, and the Kaidu was dae was erected over it This detour had caused some delay, yet Karashar was reached on the 7th of October, four days after Kin Shun had set out in person from Kuhwei The inundation from the Kaidu had spread as far as here, and the toas several feet under water All the official and private residences had been destroyed alike, and the Turki-Mussulman, as the _Pekin Gazette_ styles them, population had been compelled by Bayen Hu to follow hi to knohom the Chinese meant by Bayen Hu, but it is almost impossible to say As it was not Hakian leaders, either of Uru and placed in coion He appears to have been the coarian army which was left round Korla

Not only was Karashar deserted by its inhabitants, but so was the whole country round about Some, indeed, had fled to the mountains, but these were afraid to return when they saw the Chinese established in their homes And then the conquerors followed out their usual plan by settling fresh colonists in the town The Mongol noble, Cha-hi-telkh, was directed to move up some hundreds of the members of his tribe to occupy this important post, to restore the homes and to retill the fields; and while this work of restoration was proceeding on territory conquered by the Chinese, that through which they passed in hostile guise was subjected to far other treatainst Korla from two sides, and on that day a cavalry skirmish took place, in which fifteen of Bayen Hu's horsemen were slain, and two taken prisoners Froarb, but were Mussul natives of Shensi, it was learnt that Bayen Hu had withdraith all his forces to Kucha, taking with him the produce of the country and the majority of the people They affired was only a scouting party, sent out to learn what the Chinese ar When the Chinese had exhausted their stock of information they beheaded them The same day they entered Korla, which they found to be coh not flooded The walls remained, but eneral was nearly reduced to a desperate plight, as the provision train, which was transported by cart and camel, did not co the victorious areneral, or perhaps soht be soari had been unable to carry aith thely the whole arround in all likely places for hidden stores Their toil was soon rewarded, and ”several tens of thousand catties' weight of food” were discovered